Circus Trees and Tree Shapers

In 1947 Axel Erlandson created the Tree Circus using intricate grafting techniques. Near the end of his life, he sold them all. twenty nine of these amazing trees were moved to Gilroy Gardens, some went to individuals, and have been lost.

The basic idea is to graft multiple tree's together, forming the shapes you want, and then let them grow while pruning and caring for them, possibly over many years. Sheesh. I can't even imagine this kind of patience. I spent an hour just clicking on links from google images.

Right now in Austrailia Peter Cook and Becky Northey are continuing this patient artform as the Pooktre tree shapers They have some incredibly cool stuff. I can just imagine stumbling upon one of their tree people in the dark, and swearing for the rest of my life that I met a Dryad.